Hi LRichard,
Yes indeed, thanks for the observation/correction. The Zodiac has a natural ordering. Historically, that was not so for the Planets.
I might be misunderstanding you, but there was a standard historical, "natural", ordering of the planets, based on the speed of their movement or change in the sky:
Moon
Mercury
Venus
Sun
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
When put into the complete cosmology in the Graeco-Roman era (4th century b.c.e. - 3rd century c.e.; i.e. "classical antiquity"), formalized as the "Ptolemaic" system, including Earth as the stationary centre, they can be numbered as -
(Earth, the Sphere of the Elements - 10)
Moon -9
Mercury - 8
Venus - 7
Sun - 6
Mars -5
Jupiter - 4
Saturn - 3
(Sphere of the Fixed Stars (as opposed to the "Moving Stars", the Planets) - 2)
(First Mover, Empyrean, God - 1)
So the system shows the apparent distance from Earth, based on the speed of movement in the sky. I'm almost certain that any textual tradition coming from a European or Middle Eastern background knows this logical order.
But perhaps you meant that the Sefer Yetzirah doesn't, historically, present the same order. This is true, but only partly. It seems that the Westcott and the Golden Dawn relying on him, had the misfortune to have the "wrong" text of the Sefer Yetzirah. The better or more authoritative texts, at least according to what I have read in Aryeh Kaplan and elsewhere, present this classical or Ptolemaic order properly, with the sole exception of the Moon.
The GD order is based on a text which has -
B - Mercury - 8
G - Moon - 9
D - Venus - 7
K - Jupiter - 4
P - Mars - 5
R - Sun - 6
Th - Saturn - 3
(I use the numbers because it easier to see the "ordering" concept that way) There doesn't seem to be any logical order to the planets here, at least as far as I can discern.
The other Sefer Yetzirah tradition has the order -
B - Moon - 9
G - Mars - 5
D - Sun - 6
K - Venus - 7
P - Mercury - 8
R - Saturn - 3
Th - Jupiter - 4
This order, with only a single one, 9 the Moon, misplaced, cannot be accidental. To put it another way, for those not used to the classical cosmology, take the numbering from fastest to slowest, Moon to Saturn, as 7 to 1:
Moon - 7
Mars - 3
Sun - 4
Venus - 5
Mercury - 6
Saturn - 1
Jupiter - 2
The sequence is 7-3-4-5-6-1-2. Only the fastest planet, the Moon - 7, is out of place. Read it as, for instance, 3-4-5-6-(7)-1-2.
Why the authors of the SY wanted the Moon as the first day, and Saturn as the sixth, I don't know; but the rest follow the classical order exactly, taking into account those preferences.
It's also clear that the author of the SY did not assign the planets, in either system, to the standard classical planets with the days of the week (admittedly late classical, so perhaps indicating the SY's age, before the Roman (Christian) Empire adopted the seven-day week):
Sunday - Sun - 6
Monday - Moon - 9
Tuesday - Mars - 5
Wednesday - Mercury - 8
Thursday - Jupiter - 4
Friday - Venus - 7
Saturday - Saturn - 3
Did I misunderstand you?